Vampire
Vampires are races of immortal undead beings, known in the Castlevania series for being the primary antagonistic forces that threaten to cover the world in darkness and chaos. History & Analysis Vampires are undead, supernatural beings, whose origins come from Slavic and ancient world folklore. Believed to have originated from the reanimating corpses of restless souls of the dead, heretics of established religion, users of black magic, or even those that have sold their souls to be the incarnate of dark gods and devas, they are known to feast upon the blood of living beings, are endowed with dark powers, like superhuman physical prowess, shapeshifting, flight, teleportation, electrokinesis, pyrokinesis, and immortality. They are able to grant vampirism to others by feeding their own blood to their victims, and can only be slain by sunlight, with anointed and holy items, or by destroying their hearts. Castlevania Vampires :Nintendo 64 and Lords of Shadow universe, see Vampire (disambiguation). Vampires in Castlevania are slightly different from their real world basis; where they retain most of their real world traits, they also are granted the ability to use black magic, and some are able to draw upon the very origin of all evil itself, Chaos, to augment their power at the cost of corrupting themselves even further. Dracula has also demonstrated a power unique to Castlevania as well, able to channel and absorb the evil and malice of humankind to resurrect himself every 100 years, summon lesser demons, curse lands around him to rot, plague and famine, and corrupt men's hearts even further. It is likely that this power is given to him as he is chosen by Chaos to be a Dark Lord, and only available to chosen beings. Their history in the Castlevania series portrays them as a great evil that terrorize mankind. Where their origins are not clearly established, nothing is truly known about them other than the fact that vampires have existed long before the rise of Dracula and are beings born of Chaos. Traits Vampires are usually featured as white or blue pale-skinned humanoids, with bat lack traits including wings and talons, although more powerful vampires are usually less bestial in appearance. Some vampires feature usually physical coloured sclera such as red in some cases, enunciated canines and in some albeit unusual cases, increased height, with Vampires such as Dracula being as tall as being twice as tall as an average adult, and Brauner while not as tall, is easily above two meters tall. Dracula's case is an oddity however, since his original incarnation Mathias Cronqvist was a regularly tall male human at the time of achieving vampirism, so it is unknown how he achieved twice that value. One common trait both have is that the two were humans who turned into vampirism willingly, this seems to make sense as other humans turned into vampires such as Joachim Armster were turned into vampires by another one and did not have an increase of height. Strangely enough however vampires such as Carmilla are often several meters tall, although this could be attributed to a transformation rather than a more natural state. It is unknown however if being turned into a vampire willingly can result in increased height, nor the reason of why this occurs has been specified if true. Amongst all demons and supernatural creatures featured series, Vampires are often seen as the most powerful entities known, possessing incredible power. Physical abilities are not limited to immortality, enhanced strength, speed and endurance well above the human levels, as well as magical abilities allowing them to use fire, lightning, ice, wind, darkness, or any other element associated to each Vampire, as well as teleporting, psychical powers and even reincarnation, although this ability is only available to the most powerful of Vampires. The arguably most terrifying ability of vampires is transformation, since they often can use this ability to turn into a more bestial or demonic form, much more powerful than their natural state, giving them an edge in battle and making them more difficult to slay. As creatures of darkness however, they have an abertion to light and holy elements, such that sunlight, or holy weapons like the Vampire Killer or enchanted items also work against them. Magic of other elements while not as effective can also harm and kill a vampire. So far all vampires known are universally evil in some way, being sadistic, nihilistic, ruthless, arrogant and uncaring of all destruction they wage. Some like Dracula go as far as justifying their actions by claiming they exist because the evil of humanity allows them to, thus even questioning the notion that they could be deemed "evil". The only exception known is Alucard who is not a full vampire but a halfbreed instead. Known Appearances in the Castlevania Series Master Vampires Powerful Vampires who answer to no one. *Dracula *Walter Bernhard *Brauner Dracula Follower Vampires Ancient Vampires devoted to Dracula. Their contract with Dracula allows for them to be reborn with the Castle. *Carmilla *Elizabeth Bartley *Olrox Dhampirs Dhampirs are the halfbreed children of a vampire and a human, who can choose whether to follow the ways of the vampires or the ways of the humans. *Alucard (the dhampir son of Dracula) Victims of Vampirism Humans who were turned into vampires either against their will or when left with no other choice, often to the great lament of their loved ones. These victims were unable to return to being humans and were usually slain by heroes. *Joachim Armster - Circumstances of his turning by Walter are unknown. *Gwendolyn - Eric Lecarde's love interest. *Lyudmil - turned by Alucard. *Sara Trantoul (not completely turned) - turned by Walter. *Justine Gandolfi - turned by Walter. Cured Vampires On rare situations a vampire can be cured from their Vampirism, so far only those who have been unwillingly turned to vampires seem to have been cured. When using the vampire cures on other undead it has been known to destroy them (such as using the Undead Killer or Sanctuary spell). *Stella *Loretta *Vincent Dorin (if the player chooses to do so) Trivia *While they are a present theme in Castlevania, the vampires don't have much fulfillment in the series, unless assisting Dracula in his resurrection or ascension to power. Their appearances and attributes vary from game to game, but they usually appear as antagonists throughout the series, fighting against the heroes or taking someone they care about away. The vampires have enhanced strength and senses, and being undead, they are virtually immortal. As children of the night, it is said they have power over darkness. *They are shown to possess advanced powers, but are no match to the Dracula himself, although they vary among their appearances, such as teleportation, shapeshifting into bats, and mental powers. Other attributes are their pale skin and different colored eyes (varying between scarlet red and light blue) in their appearances, some of them being of demonic nature such as Olrox or J.A. Oldrey. *Some can say vampires lack souls and therefore lack a conscience for their acts, explaining why their indiscriminate killing of the humans and why they have to be destroyed. In contradiction, it's said the Crimson Stone can turn the souls of vampires into power for its master, indicating that they indeed have souls but do not connect to their "evil" behavior. *In the games (just like the vampire lore), they are highly vulnerable to Holy Water and the Cross subweapons, as they cause great deal of damage to the vampires. They also are affected by sunlight, being creatures of the darkness. *Gilles de Rais and Olrox are all parodies of Dracula. Enemy Data Category:Vampires Category:Slavic Monsters